How to Progressively Load the Rotator Cuff - #AMR395

The Ask Mike Reinold Show · Sep 10, 2026 · 18m · transcript

If you've ever programmed rotator cuff work, you've probably hit the same wall this week's listener did. You start with the classic light band or dumbbell external rotations, everything progresses nicely for a few weeks, and then it just stops. Add a couple pounds and the movement falls apart. So you assume you've maxed out what these little muscles can do and go back to maintenance mode.

Here's the question we got, and it's a good one: the infraspinatus and teres minor are small muscles, so at some point linear progression seems to stop working. Do they respond to heavier loading like three…